Baby Born Three MONTHS Premature Kept Alive By Doctors Who Bundled Her Into Sandwich Bag
A tiny premature baby was incredibly kept alive after quick-thinking doctors placed her inside a Tesco sandwich bag to keep her warm.
Pixie Griffiths-Grant weighed just 1.1lbs when she was delivered by emergency C-section at 28 weeks - but her weight quickly fell to less than 1lb minutes after birth.
Doctors immediately bundled her into a see-through sandwich bag - emblazoned with the supermarket’s logo - to stop her body temperature dropping.
Pixie, who was lighter than half a bag of sugar and smaller than her mother’s hand, was rushed to intensive care, where doctors expected her to survive for less than an hour.
But miraculously, tiny Pixie - so-named because of her size - defied the odds and is now at home and thriving, five months on.
Mum Sharon Grant, 37, said: “As soon as she was born, they gave her a little hat and put her straight into the bag to keep her body temperature up.
"After that they wrapped her in bubble wrap and got her straight to intensive care.
"It was so random that they had her in the Tesco bag - it must have just been what the operating theatre had at the time."
Sharon, of Goonhavern, Cornwall, was forced to give birth three months early after scans revealed her unborn baby had stopped growing in the womb at just 20 weeks.
The first-time mum, who runs Floral Fancies florist in Perranporth, said: "My placenta and umbilical cord weren’t feeding her properly.
"It was so scary having to get her checked all the time and I had all the doctors telling me all this bad news. It was awful.”
At about 6pm on May 11 - 28 weeks into her pregnancy - doctors told Sharon that she needed to have her baby that day.
She was transferred from the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro for a specialist caesarean delivery at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, around an hour and a half away.
But when she arrived, her blood pressure was so high she was told it would be too dangerous to operate - so she listened to Ben Howard, which helped bring it down.
At 3pm on May 12, - 10 weeks before her August 2 due date - Sharon gave birth to a tiny Pixie, with the little girl’s father, Edward Griffiths, 41, by her side.
Pixie was kept in an incubator for three months after she was born. Sharon was not allowed to cuddle her for 18 days, because every time she was handled she lost weight.
Once a little stronger, Edward, Sharon’s former partner and Pixie’s dad, could only cuddle her for an hour every other day.
“It was amazing that she survived, but it was truly traumatic,” said Sharon. It was not until Pixie was around two months old that she began gaining strength.
And earlier this month, aged five months and weighing 7.5lbs - the same weight as a newborn - Sharon was allowed to take her baby girl home for the first time.
Pixie - who looks as though she is two months old, rather than five - is now breathing without oxygen.
Sharon said: “When we went in the front door Pixie came alive. She was looking all over the place and could see what was happening.
"We have been in and out of hospital a lot since she got home, and she can’t be around other children or ill people because if she gets a cold she will end up on oxygen again.
"But at the moment she is doing really well. She looks really nice and healthy."
* Donate to the Keep Me Close appeal for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Derriford Hospital via this link.
(Pictures credited to SWNS)
